Okay, hear me out. We are in the NHL playoffs, and that means no more trades or moves. What you see on the Montreal Canadiens roster is what you get. And right now, we have to make do with what we have, not what we would like.
Once the Montreal Canadiens get knocked out of the playoffs, or the offseason begins, then we can and will talk about what moves are best. Should Montreal move on from the monster contracts of ageing stars Carey Price and Shea Weber?
But the fact of the matter is, Carey Price is a part of this team and will be, at least, until this playoff run is over. Cayden Primeau is good, but not ready to play at the highest level in the playoffs, least of all against the high-powered offence of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Well, then there’s Jake Allen…
Price and Allen: What’s the Difference for the Montreal Canadiens?
We have to put aside the money part of this conversation for right now. Yes, the price tag of Price is ridiculous and much higher than that of Allen, but the amount of money a player makes shouldn’t be in the conversation right now. That’s offseason talk.
Neither Price nor Allen has been phenomenal, hovering around the middle of the pack for NHL goalies this season.
Montreal split the games between goaltenders pretty evenly, but that was more due to injuries to Price than anything else: 25 games for Price, 29 games for Allen. Looking at the stats, Price has a goals-against-average of 2.64 and a save percentage of .901. Allen has a goals-against-average of 2.68 and a save percentage of .907. Not a huge difference, especially considering they flip-flop best save percentage and goals against.
Allen has a record of 11-12-5, and Price 12-7-5. Allen has beaten Toronto twice this year, 3-2 in overtime, the game where Caufield scored his second straight overtime winner, and 4-2 in April. Price has only beaten Toronto once, a 2-1 contest in February, but also lost in overtime in the season opener.
The X-Factor
There is something that the numbers cannot show. Carey Price is still one of the most feared goaltenders in the NHL, from a player point of view. In a player poll last year, Price was rated the best goalie in the league. Not a close call either, with Price garnering almost 45% of the votes, which is a hop skip and a jump above Andrei Vasilevskiy, who got only 17% of votes.
That’s not nothing. It is not going to affect Matthews, who is not going to care what keeper is in the net. He is going to score on even the greatest goalie with ease. But the other guys further down the lineup, the guys who cannot score at will, they may grip their sticks just a tiny bit harder when they see Price, and think about that shot a second longer than they would against any other goalie. Or they might make the pass instead of the shot. That can be the difference between a sure goal and an easy save.
It is impossible to know the true impact that it has on an offence. Maybe it’s nothing, but it can be something, something that Allen does not have. Allen is a good goalie, but he doesn’t have the gravitas that Price still has, even though his star seems to be fading in the eyes of the fans.
When Price is in net, Montreal scores 3.04 goals per game, with Allen, it is 2.34. That is not insignificant, and it is something that can get into the Canadiens’ players’ heads as much as Price can get into the heads of the opponents.
It is legitimate to question whether those goals for amounts are inflated, as Price played more often in the early season, where the Montreal Canadiens, as a whole, were playing better. Whereas Allen was stuck with the dismal way the Canadiens have been playing lately.
But it can also be a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Hockey players are a superstitious lot (look at Corey Perry who, when is in a scoring drought, will put his stick in the garbage), and when anything might get in those fragile heads, odds are at will.
Carey Price, whether the numbers back it up or not, has an aura about him that makes the team in front of him a tiny bit better, and the opponents a tiny bit worse, before the puck is even dropped. A tiny bit can be enough to swing a game in favour of the Habs. Any goalie that Ducharme and Bergevin go with, there will undoubtedly be a short leash.
Against a great Toronto team, there is little room for error, and no time to let anyone try to figure themselves out. But right now, before the puck is dropped, the Price looks right.